Are the Souls of the Wicked Annihilated?
by Bill Pierce
Some time ago, Mr. Garner Ted Armstrong, in a broadcast, stated that the souls of the wicked dead cease to exist. Besides using Matthew 10:28 as his proof text, he used cartoons to mock the idea of everlasting punishment. This is a favorite doctrine, not only for him but also for other religious teachers in the Adventist and Jehovah's Witnesses denominations. Do the souls of the wicked dead cease to exist? Are they annihilated? Does Matthew 10:28 teach such?
In Matthew 10:28, Jesus says, “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. But rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” They understand the word destroy to mean that in hell, the wicked souls are annihilated. But is this the meaning of the word destroy? Webster defines the word as: “to ruin the structure, organic existence or condition of; to demolish, to bring to naught by putting out of existence; to kill, to abolish, to nullify.” There is nothing in this definition that would mean annihilation. A building may be destroyed and thus cease to exist as a building, but it is not annihilated.
The original Greek word for destroy is “apollo,” meaning “to destroy, i.e., to put out of the way entirely, abolish, put an end to, ruin. Metaph. To devote or give over to eternal misery. Mt. 10:28” (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon). In Luke 12:4-5, the word destroy is rendered “to cast into,” which suggests the figurative meaning of the word as is seen above. The word carries the idea of “utter and hopeless ruin, but they convey no idea whether the ruined object ceases to exist or continues a worthless existence.” (Pulpit Commentary).
Truth must harmonize, and teaching that the wicked cease to exist after death would contradict what Jesus said in Matthew 25:46, that the wicked will be punished eternally, and what Paul says in II Thessalonians 1:9 that those who obey not the Gospel “shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power.”
